Text VI

Pre-reading

Task 1. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary:

souvenir, antique, ivory, species, fauna, flora, permission.

Task 2. Translate the following words.

English Russian

signatories …

… запрет

seizure …

poaching …

… соглашение

… временный

extinction …

incentive …

Task 3. Form new parts of speech with the help of suffixes and prefixes given. Mind the spelling. Consult a dictionary.

(il-) legal (-ly)

frequent (-ly)

debate (-able)

mere (-ly)

(un-) likely

especial (-ly)

Task 4. Which words constitute the word family including the word “signatory”?

Task 5. Read the sentences and say what part of speech the italicized word is: noun or verb?

In 1989 the signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreed to ban trade in ivory. In 2007 CITES extended this ban for further nine years.

Call of the wild

San Francisco’s Chinatown

The cheap souvenirs give way to more exotic wares: antique figures carved in the Japanese netsuke style, statues of monkeys, delicate earrings and necklaces. They are ivory. There are lots of them. And they shouldn’t be there.

In 1989 the signatories of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) agreed to ban trade in ivory. In 2007 CITES extended this ban for a further nine years. A stroll in Chinatown suggests that trade is thriving nonetheless. Around half the ivory in this market comes from illegally killed elephants.

A sharp increase in ivory seizures in recent years also points to a flourishing trade. Meanwhile, rising wealth in Asia is raising the returns from poaching. Prices have leapt from $200 a kilo in 2004 to the present level of $850-900. New ivory is appearing: you can encase your mobile phone in it if you like. Some scientists think poaching may be as prevalent as it was before the original ban.

Citing CITES

The ivory ban is frequently held up as a prime exhibit for CITES, which many conservationists consider a highly successful agreement. Elephant numbers have been rising by 4% a year in the well-protected populations of southern and east Africa, but in Central and West Africa no one knows what is going on. Some countries, such as Botswana , home to a quarter of the African total, and South Africa, now have so many elephants that they would like to shoot more of them (and have asked CITES, without success, for permission to sell more ivory).

In all, CITES bans trade in nearly 1,000 animal and plant species; trade in many more is limited by permits. The Interpol working group on wildlife crime said that there were clear signs that illegal trade was increasing. More frequent seizures, of larger volume, have been occurring. The increased seizures reflect larger, more frequent shipments by the sophisticated criminal gangs now involved in the trade.

If trade is on the rise, then the efficacy of trade bans as a conservation measure is at least debatable. To be sure, some bans have worked. Exports of wild birds from four of the five leading bird-exporting countries fell by more than two-thirds between the late 1980s and the late 1990a as a result of CITES-related trade measures, including an American import ban.

The temporary ban on the trade in the vicuña, a relative of the llama, and its wool is another success. Four South American countries imposed a trade ban in 1967; a CITES ban followed in 1975. Later CITES allowed trade in sheared wool on a permit basis. The population has risen to more than 250,000. The ban lasted long enough to give vicuñas time to recover.

Horns and stripes

However, for other species a ban has merely spawned a thriving illegal trade. After trade in all five species of rhino was banned, the black rhino became extinct in at least 18 African countries. The global rhino population has fallen from 75,000 in the early 1970s to around 11,000 today, and some species are on the verge of extinction. Tigers have fared no better.

The point is not that bans never work. They can, especially in the short term or when species are in dire danger. But their longer-term success depends on three factors. First, they must be coupled with a reduction in demand for the banned products. If a ban helps to shift people’s tastes, so much the better. Second, they must not undermine incentives to conserve endangered species in the wild. Third, they have to be supported by governments and citizens in the countries where these species live. If these conditions are not met, bans are unlikely either to reduce trade or to maintain endangered species. They may even make matters worse.

Take demand first. Trade in cat and seal skins, and in parrots, has fallen because consumer campaigns destroyed demand at the same time as trade bans cut the legal supply. Trade is reduced most when demand is sensitive to price: cat and seal skins and parrots fall into this class. Demand is also influenced by fashion.

For tigers and rhinos, demand has proved more resilient. The trade ban has served to increase the price of horn, but demand has stayed strong – and so, therefore, has the incentive to poach. The resulting illegal trade has proved hard to combat.

Second, consider incentives to conserve. Bans may cut out legal wildlife trade, but some economists say they undermine efforts to conserve animals and plants in the wild and may even create incentives to get rid of them. If people have no economic interest in maintaining wild animals or their habitat, the attraction of converting the land to some other use, such as agriculture, increases.

In addition to removing incentives to conserve, bans also remove a source of income with which to manage conservation. Partly for this reason, some countries have asked CITES for permission to sell elephant ivory, rhino horn or tiger bone. The third lot of factors affecting the success of trade bans is the effectiveness of government and social institutions. National enforcement of CITES trade bans is vital for them to work.

Working on the text

Task 6. What do the following abbreviations stand for?

WTO CITES

WCO EU

HS IMF

GATT CIS

CCC FAO

Task 7. Use the dictionary and find the difference between “a hunter” and “a poacher”.

Task 8. Write out the names of all species mentioned in the text.

Task 9. The adjective “sophisticated” has several meanings. It may mean:

a) having a lot of experience of life, and good judgment about socially important things such as art, fashion etc.;

b) having a lot of knowledge and experience of difficult and complicated subjects and therefore able to understand them well;

c) very advanced, well-designed, working in a complicated way.

Which meaning would you choose while translating the sentence from the text: “The increased seizures reflect larger, more frequent shipments by the sophisticated criminal gangs now involved in the trade.”

Task 10. Match the words given in the left column with their definitions in the right column.

1. ban a) place to buy

2. trade b) when a particular type of animal or plant stops existing

3. market c) when someone is officially allowed to do something

4. demand d) exchange of goods

5. seizure e) a group of similar animals or plants

6. permission f) to prohibit

7. species (plural) s) taking away illegal goods such as drugs or guns

8. extinction h) the need to have something

Task 11. The prefixes “im-”, “il-”, “un-”, are called negative prefixes. Form adjectives with negative meaning.

legal proper economic

licit successful possible

lawful patient fashionable

legitimate legible practical

What other negative prefixes do you know? Give examples.

Task 12. What synonyms for the word “ban” do you know?

Task 13. Comprehension questions.

1) When did the signatories of CITES agree to ban trade in ivory?

2) How many species did the Convention ban trade in?

3) What signs showed that illegal trade was increasing?

4) What trade measures resulted in success?

5) What happened to the black rhino after the trade ban?

6) What three factors that the longer-term success depends on, are mentioned in the text?

7) What is demand influenced by?

8) What alternative programs have been successful?

9) What is the third factor affecting the success of trade bans?

10) How can countries conserve endangered species?

Task 14. Read and translate the newspaper article into Russian. Render the article.